We know the parable in Luke, Chapter 12 concerning the man who decided to build bigger barns.  He said, “I filled everything up that I have.  What shall I do with this?”  Well, there are a couple of things you can choose to do.  You can give away all that doesn’t fit in those barns or you can build bigger barns.  This man in Luke, Chapter 12, decides that what he’s going to do is build bigger barns.  He says, “This I will do,” verse 18, “I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years,” (You finally reached financial security), “take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”  Now you can use your money for that.  We can eat and drink.  We can enjoy our resources.  We’ve now got this abundance.  We’re beginning to see, here, superabundance.  “So, what I think I’ll do is use it to travel the world.  Buy the lake house that I’ve always wanted.  Get my RV and my boat and take ease.”  Well, the Lord says, “Thou fool.”  I’m going to show you both sides of this.  There is nothing wrong with enjoying your gain.  But we’re contrasting, here, and He’s saying, “Listen to me, don’t be foolish.  You’ve laid up all of this treasure for yourself.”  “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of you, then who shall all of these things be which thou hast provided?”  “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, (Look!) and is not rich toward God.”  The whole issue is to, first of all, beloved, our priority in life should be to be rich toward God; amen?  We’re to be rich toward God and rich in good works.

If we’re rich toward God, first, we’re always ready to establish His covenant, His covenant is preaching the gospel.  His covenant is sustaining and edifying the church.  His covenant is meeting the needs of those that are in need, indeed, and prioritizing these things in our lives.  Then we’ll begin to see fulfilled that great blessing that Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessings of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow,” amen?  See, riches can bring you a lot of sorrow.  The Scripture says, in 1 Timothy 6, those that will to be rich, that are worried about sustaining and keeping enough for themselves, those that will do whatever it takes for a little more gain and a little more prosperity, he said, “You’re going to pierce yourself through with sorrows, you’ll become totally destitute of the character, of Christlikeness.”  It’s in that passage, that he makes the statement because the love of money is the root of all these evils.  The love of money is not the root of all evil.  The better rendering of that would be, if you’ve looked at it in the context, would be to read it and understand that the love of money is the root of all of these evils that he’s speaking of there in that sixth chapter.  What a life of sorrow abundance and wealth can bring.  How it takes humble men and destroys them as they become self‑willed, obsessed. 

Beloved, when we’re becoming rich toward God, then all that He blesses us with adds no sorrow because He knows we’re going to use it properly.  We become vessels, conduits through which wealth flows to His glory to the establishing of His covenant; amen?  Oh, if we would only believe that!  If we would walk in enough character to keep this old man crucified on a daily basis so that the voice of the Holy Spirit would be predominant over our voices of ambition, lust and natural wisdom.